♪ Music ♪ Music Do you all know the difference between a fairy tale and a boatmans story?

How does a fairy tale start out?

Once upon a time.

Well a boatmans story starts out with... no _ there we were.

♪ Music ♪ Music ♪ Music and morning sounds I'm Cindell Dale and down in Grand Canyon on the river it's shortened up to “Dellie”.

I was born June 19th, 1964.

I think my Gemini sign balances me.

It allows me to be that earthy, quiet person, and then it allows me to be the Tasmanian devil and spin around in circles.

I had a garden as a little girl, so I always had that connection to the earth.

My daddy told me, “Don't let anybody tell you that you're too little or that you're a girl you can't do what you set your life to go do.” And that is right there.

♪ Music Welcome to the Grand Canyon, everybody.

I'm Ashley Brown, the trip leader of this expedition.

We have 280 river miles, approximately 160 named rapids, 30 of which have the potential of bigger consequences either for yourself or for these little dory boats that we go down here.

Here's the crew over here in Okeechobee is Andrea Mikus all the way down from Canada.

She came down here to cook her brains out in the desert.

We have Mary Kruse, overe here rowing one of the baggage boats.

Caroline Doyle.

Umm, I'm sorry, I don't know where youre really from.

(laughing) Sure you've all heard of Cindell.

Cindell Dale has been rowing dories in the Grand Canyon for 45. .

.

I've been with Grand Canyon Dories for 45 minutes.

We have adventures and side hikes and waterfalls and camping and new friends to make.

So we're excited to share this place with you all and happy to be here for the next 17 days.

place with you all and happy to be here for the next 17 days.

(clapping) All right, let's get on the road, baby we got some boating to do!

Dories .

.

.

ho!

Bye Lees Ferry, smell ya later!

♪ Music Martin Litton started running wooden dories in Grand Canyon to expose people to the fragility of our natural world.

And he has passed on that legacy to us.

He named his boats after places that humans have altered or destroyed.

The Dark Canyon, Hidden Passage, Ticaboo... those boats represented the elegance and grace of the river itself.

You and that boat become one out there.

Unless they buck ya off.

(laughing) ♪ Music We are amongst legends.

These boats are older than we are.

They break easily.

It's like growing an eggshell through gravel with a little bit of water.

If they could speak, holy cow!

Like, every patch or scratch or a ding, behind that hit is some crazy whitewater story.

This will be my third summer rowing boats down in the Grand Canyon.

I'll be rowing a baggage raft.

The first time I rode on the river it was like I found a place that I was supposed to be.

My dream would be to row a dory for sure.

They are the ballerinas of the whitewater world.

Being a female in this industry, I think I came in at a really good time.

The women that have come before me, whether they knew it or not at the time, they are why I'm here.

And I'm really lucky because I'm growing up with Cindell as my mentor.

Experience is everything and she has decades of it.

(conch shell horn) Come on down!

Whoodi hoo hoo!

So a couple of public announcements in the toilet category.

I am the special agent of toiletry.

Ready to go on a little journey.

Come on, let's go for a walk.

I'm just going to do a virtual demonstration.

We're very civilized community because we actually have toilet seats.

Back in the day, this was a 20 mil ammo can and youd sit on the edge of the ammo can and that's why it was called the Groover.

You put grooves in your bottom.

But we have evolved.

Please don't cover your deposit with toilet paper because we can't go to Walmart and buy more toilet paper.

Use what you need and don't worry about people analyzing your deposits.

Now, I would rather you pee pee in the poo poo than poo poo in the pee pee.

It's not cool to have poo poo in the pee pee.

And then please no TP in the pee pee.

No TP in the pee pee.

And if you have to do number two during the middle of the day come see us and we'll give you a little demo on that.

So no TP in the pee pee no poo poo in the pee pee but you can pee pee in the poo poo.

Any other questions about the facility?

Round of applause.

(applause) In October of 1981, I met Roger Dale.

He was already rowing down through Grand Canyon.

And the way we like to tell the story is that the men like to have their girlfriends down there.

And in 1983, I'm like, well, do I get to go?

When I saw what was going on down there I was like, I want a piece of that.

Just gets in your blood and it never leaves.

♪ Music ♪ ♪ Music I'm a little person.

I'm 115 pounds.

And it was a man's world down there.

So it was intimidating.

Women had their place in the world, and it was presented to me that if I wanted to be down in Grand Canyon, I could be a cook.

And I go, okay, I can do that.

But it was a struggle.

I was told by one particular person when I was done cooking, my job was to sit on the beach and look pretty.

I had to prove myself, proving it to myself was easy proving it to others was a journey.

(Canyon Wren bird call) (cooking sounds) I love cooking and I'm really excited that I only have to cook four times a trip instead of every day, every meal and sitting on a raft.

I was a naive 19 year old when I first came down here in 1983, and as a cook's helper.

And so how many years did you have to cook before you got to row?

Well, I cooked for probably a decade, but one day I got this pit of despair in my gut.

♪ Pensive music ♪ ♪ Pensive music ♪ I was on a baggage boat and a passenger said, “Hey, can I row that boat?” And they would say yes because they needed bodies to row the boats.

So why not me, right?

But no, I was the cook.

And I warned the guides that day, I go he's not going to make this cut.

And so the wind picked up (chuckling) and then we went left at Bedrock.

♪ Music builds ♪ And he goes, “She's going left Dellie, she's going left.” Yeah.

And the boat went down the left.

And so we go around the corner and the boat postage stamps on the backside of the rock.

postage stamps on the backside of the rock.

(crashing sounds) I just saw the boat just like rising the bow was like over my head.

And then all of a sudden, it just flipped like a pancake.

And I'm like, what in the world is going to happen now?

I was stuck in that hole.

Boom boom boom boom boom boom boom.

And the men, the dory guides just sort of chuckled.

I'm like, that's it, I'm done.

I can't have somebody make those mistakes with my life.

There I was like, “Dellie!

It's time.

You done cookin get behind the sticks and start rowing a boat.” How's that?

I knew I could do it.

I just needed the opportunity.

(creaky oars) ♪ (Katie Lee song) “Last night I lay in a restless ♪ bed a humdrum life pounding in my head.

♪ ♪ When out of the night, came a mighty roar, ♪ ♪ The river calling me back ♪ ♪ once more.

I'm actually the last generation of that group of women who were cooks before they became guides.

By the time I got down there Ellen Tibbetts was rowin a boat Jan Kempster was rowin a boat Kennley was rowin a boat Oat was rowin a boat so I had those beautiful human beings as my role models saying that they did and they could and I could.

They walked that path for me, and I walk the paths for others now.

Georgie White was a pioneer here in Grand Canyon and she is just one of those other women like the women that are on this trip that didn't let anything get in their way.

She went for the biggest rides in the Grand Canyon because she figured, what the heck go big or go home.

Might just have to follow in her footsteps in that respect.

So I come in this way, and it's not a power move it's all a finesse move.

And I come in and I kind of quarter this way so as I'm coming in, I'm starting to drop my bow and it'll drop you into this slot where you want to be between the side creek wave and the big waves.

If you push through this lateral, you'll end up in there and see that highway that I'm going for.

Awesome.

Yeah.

Sounds good.

♪ Rock music (hollering) ♪ Rock music ♪ Rock music ♪ Female lead “Give me what I want and what I need.” ♪ ♪ “What you got dont mean a thing to me” ♪ ♪ “Give me what I want” ♪ “give me” ♪ “everything.” ♪ Rock music ♪ “Give me what I want and what I need” ♪ ♪ “What you got dont mean a thing to me” ♪ ♪ “Give me what I want” ♪ “give me” ♪ “everything.” We made it.

Woohoo!

♪ Relaxing music (conch shell horn) (laughing) (conch shell horn) Coffee!

♪ Relaxing music ♪ Relaxing music Cheers.

♪ Relaxing music Yum!

♪ Relaxing music Its still same, same?

Yeah.

Like if you feel right here there's even a lump like a hard spot.

I wish I could pinpoint when it happened and not happened, but that day was just pain.

I don't think that it would be safe to try and row anything because who knows what would happen to me or if I lose an oar and... Yeah.

Yeah.

(laughing) My heart hurts more than my wrist.

Put it that way.

(laughing) (river sounds) My nickname was Princess Ashley and I was far more interested in Barbie dolls and pink figure skating outfits than being outside or doing anything else.

I was a little freaked out by the water and oh theres fish in there, and oh, it's muddy... and this that and the other thing.

I had no intention of ever being a river guide.

♪ Guitar strumming ♪ ♪ Oh me oh my oh ♪ you look at Miss Ohio ♪ shes a running around with her rag-top down ♪ ♪ but I wanna do right but not right now ♪ ♪ drive to Atlanta and live out this fantasy ♪ ♪ running around with her rag-top down ♪ I told my husband when we were in our 30s you gotta open the door or close the door.

He's like, “What are you talking about?” I go were either gonna have kids or you're going to get a vasectomy.

One of us would have had to sacrifice this and I don't think it would have been him.

I think that the goal for me is to not arrive to my grave in one piece, like a delicate little flower.

I'm going to, like, skirt in there with a cloud of dust behind me and like, barely hanging on to all my limbs.

Like it's going to be dirty, but I'm going to be like, “Whew!

What a wild ride!” ♪ Music ♪ I have a spiritual connection to all these places.

We don't have very many wild places left so saving them is important and making sure people recognize when they need to be saved or that they're worth saving.

I can't imagine myself doing anything else really this is pretty powerful for me.

♪ but I wanna do right but not right now ♪ Ouch, ouch.

Oh my God.

So I do have a little bit of news for everybody.

Mary suffered a wrist injury and she has very stoically been pushing through that and trying to continue to row her boat downstream.

And it has become apparent that that is not a sustainable model.

I'm sorry to see her leave, but the hope is by her going now she has a long career ahead of her and we're gonna miss her for sure.

And yeah.

We love you Mary.

Thanks Mary.

There's a river in a canyon that emits a siren song, and the rapids churn the water where the currents deep and strong, and the guides who run the river hear that song and must obey for the song is like a magnet and they cannot stay away.

So stay close to the river where the bighorns come to drink.

And you revel in the solitude that gives you time to think.

If you listen to the river and you hear her plaintive song then you know besides the river is where you belong.

(applause) So I hope you think of that and take it with you on your next few weeks down here without me.

Know that Im here too.

(chopper sounds) (rushing water) See that big ass wave way down there?

Heck yeah!

There's two of them.

Yeah.

So ideally, you hit the left side of the first one and hit the right side of the second one.

You got to miss the ducks and then you got to miss the whale magnet.

And then you got to split the snowplow wave and that left thing on the bottom because you'll hit a rock.

(rushing water) Every day is a learning curve.

One rapid at a time, one day at a time.

Put the boat in the right place at the right time with the right momentum, and hang on tight and enjoy the ride.

and hang on tight and enjoy the ride.

(laughing) ♪ Classical music ♪ (rushing water) I always say we strive for perfection and deal with reality.

The river doesn't even know we exist.

She is not angry, she is not resentful, she's just trying to make it to the ocean and she can't get there anymore.

So if we make mistakes out there, it's not her fault.

(crow call) Being by water is like yeah, it's really like calming.

I feel like the advice I try to give people is to float a little bit more, and then you sort of see where the river is taking your boat, because you want the river to do as much work as possible.

I think that the more you do it and the better you get, the less you do, if that makes sense.

I don't want to have any regrets in life.

And, uh, my biggest fear with the Colorado River is that we have just used her up.

The Colorado River serves over 40 million people in today's world.

She can only give so much.

The earth is heating up, and so we don't get the snowpack to feed the river system.

The federal government put dams in place to control the velocity and spontaneity of the Colorado River, so we can have a consistent water supply.

We kind of took her teeth away and when the river doesn't have anything left to give running dories down here will probably come to an end in my lifetime.

We as river guides are provided the opportunity to advocate for Mother Nature and to tell that story.

♪ Guitar strumming ♪ Drinking song.

♪ Guitar strumming ♪ So Im sitting as the bar stoo it starts to grow roots ♪ ♪ Im feelin like an old worn-out pair of shoes.

♪ ♪ Tell me, what is it that I should do?

♪ (cheering) ♪ And Im swimming in the liquor only halfway through ♪ ♪ Guitar strumming Besides my husband the Ticaboo is my soulmate.

She has a soul her spirit is as hard headed as I am.

So I think we're meant for each other.

There's a legacy with the dories.

My hope for the Ticaboo is that she gets passed on to a person who has the same desire, tenacity, confidence as I did.

It's all about the soul that can take care of the spirit of that boat.

That's the important part.

(unloading sounds) This is the official complaint department.

If you have any complaints, you can call Hellen Wait.

Caroline.

Hey kid, you want to know what it's like to row a dory in the Grand Canyon?

Golly gee!

Do I?

(laughing) You want to take my boat after lunch?

Sure.

Down through Doris and... I'd love to.

Thank you.

Drive it like you stole it, sister.

Hey, hey, hey, yeah!

You know, I met AB when I was a first year guide, and it's a cool thing to have her come up to me at a beach now in the Grand Canyon and say, “Hey you want to read the dory for the afternoon?” It's like, wow, that's pretty sweet.

You had asked me seven years ago and Id be like I don't think that would ever happen.

Its about damn time!

♪ Inspirational music The reason I keep coming back is for folks who have a great appreciation for the Grand Canyon and these wild places, and want to experience this place with the awe of a small child.

Thank you so much from me thanks from all of us for being a part of this journey and coming down the Grand Canyon your first, second, third, fifth time because this really is a magical place in the world and, we love to share it with you all.

and, we love to share it with you all.

(rowing sounds) You know, everyone has their day and I will certainly have my day where I give up the oars.

I just hope that the young women of today will continue telling the story of the legends and the legacy of these women who paved the way for us to be where we are today in Grand Canyon rowing these beautiful wooden boats.

Ocotillo!

Ocotillo!

And reflect on the spirit of the feminine touch down here.

♪ Musical build (water lapping) ♪ (Katie Lee song) “We drink to thee OColorado” ♪ (Katie Lee song) “mighty river...” Trying to think of all the ones Ive rowed.

Ticaboo!

Hidden Passage.

The Okeechobee.

Heres Ellen.

That was 1980.

To be able to row a dory and get it through the canyon in one piece is really a huge accomplishment every time you do it.

Me and Janno both rowed the Ticaboo.

I never flipped her I never fell out of her.

Oh, wow!

That's me.

That was cooking rowing days.

I didn't know how to cook, that's for sure.

Canned ravioli?

Okay.

When we were rowing they were just plywood with some paint if you, like, hit a rock, they definitely broke.

You can never be stronger than the Colorado River.

What you have to learn is how to read the water as we really figured that out.

We had to!

(laughing) There was just something really special and magical about having this beautiful little wooden home.

You should do it because when you're 80 years old, you're going to wish you did.

If you follow your heart, you'll get there.

Pull ‘em, push ‘em, ride ‘em, and keep the black side down.

Still got it!

(laughing)